January 6, 2011 (Washington, D.C.): An investigation by the British Medical Journal has confirmed not only that Andrew Wakefield's 1998 study linking vaccines with autism and gastrointestinal disorders was patently incorrect, but that Wakefield altered or misrepresented data to come to his harmful conclusions. Unfortunately, parents across the world have been deceived by Wakefield, and as a result, the United States has seen the return of disease outbreaks such as measles and pertussis that have taken the lives of children.

Word of Wakefield's false research findings spread quickly and widely, and since then, thousands of parents have chosen to exempt their children from vaccines. As a direct result, in 2008 hundreds of unvaccinated children and children too young to be vaccinated in California were infected and hospitalized with measles, a disease on its way to eradication in the U.S. Since 2010, almost 24,000 unvaccinated children across more than 18 states have become infected with pertussis and more than a dozen children lost their lives.

"Over the twenty years that Every Child By Two (ECBT) has been working to promote timely immunizations a number of allegations regarding the safety of vaccines have been purported. The medical community took each of these allegations very seriously and each was thoroughly investigated. In each instance vaccines have been declared safe. Getting our infants vaccinated on time is unequivocally the best decision a parent can make to ensure the health of their children. ECBT will continue to strive to provide the public with science-based information about vaccines," says Amy Pisani, executive director of ECBT.

Amy Pisani is available for interviews. She can be reached at amyp@ecbt.org or at (202) 277-7587.

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Every Child By Two, Carter/Bumpers Champions for Immunization, works to ensure that all children receive timely immunizations and continues to seek methods to institutionalize vaccine delivery and ensure access to vaccines for all children.